A little more crowded
Space is getting a little more interesting now, with reports of developments in both government and private sectors.
The Chinese astronauts have returned safely to Earth after almost three days in space; one ‘taikonaut’ performed a spacewalk during the mission, a task which remains difficult and risky despite many successes on the part of the U.S. and Russia. The Chinese return capsule made a ‘hard’ landing on solid ground, which is a bit trickier than landing in water. According to Wikipedia, an airbag-based ‘hard’ landing system for NASA’s Orion capsule has been removed for weight and complexity reasons, returning Orion to water landings.
Space X’s Falcon 1, carrying a dummy payload, achieved orbit around the Earth on Sunday morning. This is the first time a privately funded company has done such a feat with a liquid fuel rocket; the company’s press updates page has some cool pictures from a webcam mounted on the side of the launch vehicle. Video is supposed to follow soon. By 2010, the company plans to have a version that will safely launch heavy payloads and human beings.
The last thing the U.S. needs right now is another artificial “space race” where we pick a goal, achieve it, and rest on our laurels for another 40 years. But competition, both at home and abroad, is a good thing if it provides motivation and options. A problem suffered by both the American and Soviet space programs is that they generally had the budget to choose one method to achieve a goal, and if committing fully to that choice turned out to be inefficient, tough. No going back. Perhaps this is changing.
Only vaguely related: if you don’t read XKCD, you need to check out “Height“. There’s a poster of that image, and yes, I want it.
